Profiles: Race For York-poquoson Court Clerk

Worley: He's A Determined Candidate

October 21, 1989|By DAVID RISSER Staff Writer

YORK — A sign on the wall of Ralph Worley's office says "Success is getting up one more time than you are knocked down."

Worley was dismissed from college in the early 1960s, but then went on to become an Army lieutenant and serve in Vietnam. In the 1970s and 1980s, reaching the rank of major, he briefed ambassadors, senators and foreign leaders and helped plan the deployment of nuclear weapons in Europe.

Worley, 44, is now trying to bounce back from an unsuccessful bid in 1987 to become York's commissioner of the revenue by seeking election to become clerk of the York-Poquoson Circuit Court in the Nov. 7 election.

Worley, a Republican, is opposing Democrat Nancy Kane, a 13-year veteran of the clerk's office who is now serving as interim court clerk. The job pays $62,000 a year.

Worley grew up in Avalon, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh, where he attended public schools. He is proud of his small-town heritage, but doesn't like to talk about his dismissal from college.

"I was wild. ... I didn't pay attention. It is an embarrassing time in my life," he says.

Worley went to work for the Du-quesne Light Co. and in 1965 was married, a milestone he calls "the best thing that ever happened to me."

Worley says his wife, Carolyn, who is now a teacher at Huntington Middle School in Newport News, "got me back on track."

Worley now holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska and a master's degree in counseling from Hampton University.

Worley was drafted into the Army in 1966. He attended officer candidate school, became a lieutenant and served two years in Vietnam.

After war duty, Worley says he moved from leading a basic training unit to negotiating international arms sales. At other times, says Worley, he inspected nuclear weapons in the United States, presided over court martial proceedings and commanded a nuclear unit in Europe.

Worley has lived in Turkey, Germany, England and a handful of American states. He moved to York County in 1983 when he was stationed at Fort Monroe in Hampton.

"My kids thought the Queen was the president of the United States," says Worley, referring to the time the family spent in England. "My wife, who has always wanted to teach, would start teaching, and I'd say `We've got to move.'"

The Worleys live in Grafton on Lindsay Landing Lane. They have two children, Troy, 21, who has worked for the county's building maintenance depart ment for three years, and Eileen, 19, a student at Virginia Wesleyan College. Both graduated from Tabb High School.

Worley says he retired from the Army in 1986 to keep his family in York County and develop the community ties that are often broken with every military transfer.

He became a crisis manager at Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News, where he works in the emergency room, helping mentally ill patients, victims of child abuse, family members of patients at risk of dying and others.

"We deal with anything that becomes a crisis."

Worley is secretary of the York Exchange Club and secretary of a local retired officers' association. He volunteers on a team that helps firefighters, rescue workers and police officers deal with the stress.

Worley says he ran for commissioner of the revenue in 1987 because of his interest in community service. The clerk job Worley seeks this year "requires the same level of management skills," he says.

"As a leader, your job is to convince people that what they're doing is the right thing to do and that they're doing it because they want to do it, not because you're a dictator."

Worley says he leads by working hard and by listening to subordinates. "Essentially, you get a leader who cares."

Worley admits that he doesn't know the "inner workings" of the clerk's office, but says he learns technical details quickly.

The court clerk supervises six workers who record property transactions, wills, marriage licenses and actions of the circuit court. The office serves attorneys, judges, reporters, students and - at one time or another - most York and Poquoson residents. Worley hasn't identified any problems in the office, but says he wants to determine whether it efficiently provides service to local government agencies like the assessor's office that rely on its work.

Worley says he uses computers frequently and will be able to oversee the increasing computerization in the office.

Worley knocked on 150 doors Monday and still had time for his weekly basketball game with a group of Riverside doctors. He enjoys campaigning because, "I like the challenge of convincing people that I'm the person for the job."

However, Worley was offended by a letter published in local papers that challenged him to explain why he owns a company that offers hypnosis, marriage counseling and other services.

Worley says he formed Dawn Enterprises last year to provide inexpensive counseling to people who can't get the help they need.

"I saw ... people who needed advice, like Dear Abby advice."

Worley says he is a member of the American Association of Professional Hypnotists and that he used hypnosis to help clients combat stress and smoking.

"It's a shame" that the counseling service became a campaign issue, he says. "Anybody who knows me knows that I was just trying to provide a service to people in need."

Worley says he disbanded Dawn Enterprises because hospitals began providing some of the same services for free and because he wanted to devote more time to politics.

Worley says he will spend almost all of his time before election day smiling and shaking hands without a thought of his loss at the polls two years ago.

"I see, time and time again, people who get bogged down, spinning their wheels because they are living in the past. I approach everything I do with a really positive attitude.

"I learned a lot from my first race, and I'm not a quitter. I am one determined individual."